♪ >> ♪ every time i hear a baby cry or see the sky then i know i, i believe ♪ i hear a newborn baby cry or touch a leaf

or see the sky then i know i, i believe ♪ then i know i, i believe ♪ [applause]

>> almighty god, you have given us this good land as our heritage. make us always remember your generosity and constantly do your will. bless our land with honest industry and an honorable way of life. save us from violence, discord, and confusion. from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. make us who come from many nations with many different languages a united people. defend our liberties and give those whom we have entrusted with the authority of government the spirit of wisdom, that there might be justice and peace in our land.

when times are prosperous, let our hearts be thankful. in troubled times, do not let our trust in you fail. in your holy name we pray. amen.>> amen. >> as we join our prayers with those of the people across the nation, so we say, each in our own language, the prayer that jesus taught us. our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. amen.♪ [singing "america the o beautiful for

spacious skies ♪ ♪ america, america ♪

♪ [organ music playing] ♪

♪ america! america! god shed his grace on thee ♪ >> the lord. bless you and keep you. >> the holy one made god's face

to shine upon you. and be gracious unto you. >> the lord, lift up his countenance upon you. >> [speaking hebrew] and give you peace. >> would you kindly join hands with your neighbor? let us look to god. and i dreamed a dream. i saw a land, and on the hills walked men and women, boys and girls, hand in hand.

they were diverse in backgrounds, variegated in their humanity, yet they looked into each other's eyes and they were not afraid. and so i said to the one standing beside me, what is this? and the answer came, it is the kingdom of god. imbued with love and justice. and so i asked, where is this? and the reply came, it exists already in the hearts of those who have the courage to believe and struggle and so i asked, when is this? and the ringing reply was this, when we learn the simple art of loving one another as sisters

and brothers. so teach us to love one another. ever mindful that the relaxation of love in the realm of the republic is justice and peace. as your servants, the reverend dr. martin luther king jr. said from this very pulpits in his very last sunday sermon, we must all learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or we will all perish together as fools. we confess this day that we are tired, in a single garment of destiny. caught up in an inescapable network of destiny. what affects one directly affects all indirectly. this day we recommit ourselves to building the beloved

community. gracious god, bless our president, barack obama, our vice president, joseph biden, and their families with good health and every spiritual grace. bless our congress and our courts. bless these united states of america. transform the jangling discourse of our nation into a beautiful symphony of the human family. through us, made the earth and all the families of the earth be blessed. to the god who loves us into freedom and frees us into loving, we offer this prayer. amen. [applause]♪

♪

♪

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] ♪

>> next from the national review institute summit, remarks from republican paul ryan, followed by governor scott walker, and senator ted cruz. >> on "the newsmakers" senator james inhofe. women in combat, sequestration, and the future of the military. "newsmakers" on sunday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. eastern on c-

span. >> what is the best training for a police man? >> the best training you can get is to understand what it is all about. i will say that until the day i die. you learn how to use intelligence information. you learn how to leverage relationships. that is keep. -- key. people in the community trust you. they would tell you things that are happening that are not yet crimes so that you can intervene. i have learned the most in my career from those relationships. >> from high school dropout and single mother to the youngest least chief and d.c. history. more with cathy lanier on c- span's "q&a." >> now from the national review institute summit, remarks from

congressman paul ryan of wisconsin, governor scott walker, and senator ted cruz. then a roundtable discussion on the challenges facing the conservative movement. [gavel] >> all right, ladies and gentlemen. we are about to hear from our next speaker, anderson paul ryan. -- congressman paul ryan. [applause] when he was picked as mitt romney's running mate, eb came the subject of fascination -- he became a subject of fascination, even to his workout routine. for those of you who are not fit

enough to have a workout routine and it sounds like some advanced piece of weapon military are you happen not to work out before breakfast, the p90 x is is that you confuse your muscle by trying constantly new and different workouts everyday. we have evidence that paul ryan is very loyal to this workout routine. his most innovative workout has been caught on tape and rod casted very broadly. -- and broadcasted riley. -- broadcasted broadly. it includes running through the woods and pushing ladies in wheelchairs off a cliff. this is a tremendous workout. as you are pushing the wheelchair, it works out the legs really good on the running n, the cargo

is there. depending on your technique of pushing the wheelchairs off the cliff, you get the arms there as well. [laughter] i hope i'm not betraying any confidences when i say that the chapter of republican policies has been authored by paul ryan over the last few years began on a hunt. i might be messing this up, but as far as i understand, both hunting include sitting alone in a damn tree all day long and waiting for a dear or an elderly person to wander by. then you shoot it to kill. my understanding is that paul was up alone in a tree when they. i assume he was bored out of his mind. it occurred to him that if he was going to be in washington to continue to be congressman, he had to make it count.

he came back here. he wrote his roadmap. there about one or two other people who dared to cop- sponsored. it is a sign they were not very good with politics. within the next few years, paul reoriented the entire republican party around a version of this plan. it was an extraordinary act of intellectual and political leadership. paul is an exemplary political leader. he is unflappable. his goal is not to bent or insult -- not to vent or insult, but to persuade. he went through this entire campaign last year under tremendous pressure and never showed one moment of ill -- we saw his political character

on display in national debate or he faced a vice president who was determined to behave like a hyena that was high. [applause] i think the late great crocodile wrestler would have hesitated to sit down at the table for an hour and a half with the vice president. at the end, we knew which of those men had a better political character and which one was a better advocate for a cause. [applause] i'm absolutely certain that whatever is the solution and the answer to that writes political predicament over the next couple of years, paul ryan be part of that answer and solution. he is a great friend. ladies and gentlemen, welcome paul ryan.

[cheers and applause] >> that was pretty good. i will take you both hunting. that was great. thank you. appreciated. i can say about that introduction, that was the most recent introduction i have ever received. thank you. i appreciate it. i'm happy to see so many friends in the audience. i see a lot of familiar faces. i'm honored to see so many distinguished guests. you could say this is the greatest collection of conservative families ever gathered in one room. with the possible exception of when -- dined alone. [laughter] hail to the national review.

i started reading national review when my professor gave me a copy. when i came to washington, they were writers and editors. i was a young staffer on capitol hill. over time, i recognized the bylines. i became enthralled with the work. i want to say to the national review, thank you for 20 years of good advice. thank you for all that you do. [applause] today you are asking for my advice. as you recall, there was an election last year. it did not go our way. like you, i understand full well that elections have

consequences. the vice president off house is a few houses away from here. i was looking forward to taking on the big challenges. there are two ways to define defeat -- you can deny it or you can choose to learn from it. i choose to learn from it. the way that i see it, our defeat is all the more reason to lay out our vision and lay out specifics with a broader appeal. it will be difficult without a arner in the white house. -- without a partner in the white house. i believe that we can do this. we have to deal with the fact that president obama has a second term. that is the topic of my talk

today. a second term will present a lot of new challenges for our side. it will also present a lot of opportunities. we will need something that we occasionally overlook. i would like to explain what that is and why we need it. first, a context. worst term,dent's we argued against big government in theory -- in his first term, we argued against big government in theory. obamacare is no longer a 2008 bill. .ow it is for 10,000 pages o this should the level restrict our ability in life-saving medical devices. that is just healthcare. now the president is implementing his agenda. we will see that the benefits are far less than advertised.

the costs of this agenda are huge. we spend when chilean dollars more than we take in each year. we cannot keep that up -- we spend $1 trillion more than we taken each year. we cannot keep that up. that is a moment where our economy stalls. we will have to convince the country to change course. we had to reform entitlements. we had to revisit the healthcare law. clearly president obama does not want us to get that chance. he want his last two years to look just like his first two years of his presidency. it was to perpetuate progressive government for at least a generation. why? he thinks it is the right and to do. to do that, he needs to delegitimize the republican

party and house republicans, in particular. he will try to divide us. he will try to get us to fight with each other, question each other so we do not challenge him. if we play into his hands, we will betray the voters who supported us in the country that we serve. we cannot let that happen. we need to be smart. we need to show prudence. what do i mean when i say that? prudence is good judgment in the art of governing. abraham lincoln called it one of the cardinal virtues. it is our greatest obligation as public servants. we have to fund the good in every situation and choose the best means to achieve it. -- find the good in every situation and choose the best means to achieve it. the prudent man is like a captain at sea, he does curse of

the wind him he uses it to reach his destination. i'm not saying that we should be excessively cautious. what i'm saying is that when we see an opening, however small, we should take it. if you want to promote conservatism, we will need to use every tool at our disposal. sometimes we will have to reject the president's apostles. that time might -- president's proposals. that time might come more than once. just the other day, he said that republicans are suspicious of social security. he said that we had suspicions of feeding hungry children. but there are suspicions of caring for the elderly. look, it is the same trick every time. find a strawman and avoid honest debate. the way that he tells it, it is

the president and only the president that is trying to fix our bridges and feed our children and care for our seniors and clean our water. he must be exhausted. i know we are. [laughter] but we cannot get rattled. we will not. we have to stay united. we have to show that if given the chance, we can govern. we have better ideas. the fact is, we are not in the wilderness. republicans controlled the house and most of the statehouses. we have to oppose the president on some fronts and we have to engage them on others. we cannot let our country have a debt crisis. it they will not help ask our entitlements, and we have to buy time. we have to keep the bond market

at the bait for the safety of our people. that means we will face tough moments. like the fiscal cliff. i know we did not see eye to eye. on january 1, a trillion dollar tax hike took effect. the senate voted to prevent tax hikes and 90% of americans. and made the lower tax hikes permanent. president obama got less revenue than the speaker offered in the first place. in short, there is no way we were going to get a better deal for the american tax payer. we wanted to keep tax hikes low for everybody. we wanted to cut spending. otherwise every single taxpayer would have paid higher taxes and our economy would have gotten into a nosedive. the decision was simple.

if you think a bill needs to pass, you vote for it. many of my colleagues voted the other way. i respect their decision. prudence demands mutual understanding, especially among friends. my colleagues and i saw the same thing. we wanted a smaller, smarter government. we simply differed on the means. that is the difficulty of governing. it should not be a cause for division. our tactics will differ from issue to issue, but our strategy remains the same. in the next four years, opportunity will not come easily. we have to pay our bills and make sure we can pay our bills tomorrow. to do that, we need to cut spending and budget responsibly.

our job as we see it is to help the country prevent a debt crisis. every family sets a budget. every business budgets. the federal government should do the same thing. it is the law that we passed a budget. the house has done its job. the senate does not pass a budget in nearly four years. that is unacceptable. that has to change. [applause] the house will not consider another boat to increase the debt ceiling unless the senate passes a budget. we are going to point the country in the right direction. we are going to cut spending. [applause] it will be times when conservatives disagree on the way forward. we have never marched in lockstep. that is not what we

do. and healthy debate is a good and needed thing. we can do that in private without doing it in public. we need to give an honest account of our actions and the reasons for that. we should challenge the left and not each other. our founders were men of prudence. taken james madison. nowadays they call him the founder of the constitution. he lost some key governments -- arguments. he fought for plan to give the states the same number of states in the government. he wanted to give congress even more power. he wanted it to be able to veto state laws. madison argued vigorously for his side. when it came time to ratify the constitution, there was no

greater advocate and james madison. he helped write editorials and called it the federalist papers. he led the charge for approval at the virginia state convention. he paid a price for his support. -- thisran for congress is the 18th century of getting primary. he decided for all of his imperfections, he would support that restitution because it would save the union. today we are the living proof of his prudence. i say that we have two roles in the president's second term. one, mitigate bad policy. two, advanced good policy when we can. we have got to stop the growth of administrative state.

they have become a fourth branch of government in recent years. they combine all three options of government in one sweep. the people suffer the consequences. this is not government by the consent of the governed. we must keep them in line. that is what oversight does. [applause] on the second point, we have to offer an alternative. we cannot leave the democrats to their own devices. early this month, tax hikes have gone up further. the democrats are calling for higher taxes again. we are not raising taxes.

but we have no desire to be a welfare state. we have to focus on the real problems and that is spending. we cannot just respond to the democrats proposals. we have to offer our own, and that is exactly what we are going to do. i will advance reforms to strengthen medicare and medicaid. there'll be a tax reform effort. we will propose a budget that will balance and pay down the debt. guess what? the democrats are unlikely to accept our proposals. they refused to consider the real reform that needed -- that was needed to get the country back on track. when reform is possible, we will be ready. that is our obligation. i have got to tell you,

washington is broken. the frontlines of reform are in the states. that is where republicans republicans will see the greatest success. thanks to governors like bobby jindal. these governors deserve our thanks. they are the models for all of us. they work across the aisle when possible and expand opportunity through education reform. i cannot wait to see what they can accomplish this year. when you take stock of all of this, it might seem you right now, but it will grow. as the president implement his agenda, it won't be pretty. at that moment, we will be ready. we will offer an alternative vision. we will explain how our vision

differs and how it rests on vibrant communities and increases upward mobility. we will show how we can govern better by governing closer to the people and strengthening families and their livelihoods. we will make it clear that we have better ideas to combat poverty. our policies will list everyone in this country. we will translate that vision into a governing agenda. that is how you offer enduring solutions. we will say to the country, here is our plan for the country, for the budget, for healthcare, for energy, defense. when we do that, we put our plans out against the president 's results, i think we will compare quite favorably. we will win back the trust of the american people and put our plan into action.

that is what you do in moments like this. pick yourself up, dust yourself off, fight for what you believe in, and get back to work. the challenge is continued to mount. it is easy to get discouraged by it all. the election lost. the difficulties of the changes are coming. but it is a mortal sin to despair. i'm not ready to give up. i know you're not either. you would not be here if you wear. that is why i'm asking you for your help. every conservative needs to be involved. after the election, i needed to take a little bit of time. i needed to get into the woods. that is where i read charge. i took my daughter with me. she got her first ddeeer. [applause]

that is what we do where we come from. i know other people cannot relate to that. but i realized sitting next to her, talking to her in the woods and how quickly she was growing up, it got me thinking when i am old and gray kids ask me about that moment, i do not want to tell them how america lost its way. i do not want to say, don't blame me. i did not vote for any of it here instead, i want to tell them how america got back on track. i want to say, our country was worth the fight. with your help, and with a touch of riddance, we will win it. thank you. [applause]

thank you. appreciate it. >> thank you. thank you. great to be here. great to be here. the real truth is that my mother was the church mouse -- when he was giving introduction, i was thinking back to that point almost two years ago in march of 2011. i remember i was holding a press conference and i would talk to the media in my state and others joined in from around the country every day around 5 p.m. the idea that if i held a 5 p.m. news conference, i would have it live on tv so there would be no filter. i could talk directly to the

voters, my constituents. one day protesters figure this out. you would hear those horns that would go off and other things out there. they would play it extra loud. one reporter said, don't you hear all of that noise? what is your response to that? we had anywhere from 10 g of 15,000 many as 100,000 at one point the people protesting. i said, you know, that is what is great about america. people can protest the government from many levels. they have every right to be heard. whether it is 15 or 100,000, they have every right to be heard. i live in a state where the majority voted for me. i said, never will i let the voices in the capital drawn out

the voices of the majority of people in my state who elected me to do what i do. [applause] as afternoon, i went to spend a few moments talking about three different things. if you do not remember the details, you can walk away with these the words -- optimism, relevant, courage. optimism, relevance, and courage. optimism and the city and at this time might seem like an awkward word. a lot of people focusing on national politics think about congress and the presidency. you might feel a little less optimistic. you should be optimistic if you look around the country. there are now 30 states in america that have republican governors. [applause]

in nearly half of the states in america, they have republican majorities in state legislation. in wisconsin, we not only added a seat in our lower house, we regained the majority and the wisconsin state senate. we look to do big and bold things like tax cuts and entitlement reforms and school reforms. we can do that because we have republican majorities in both chambers, as well as republican governors. if you look at the future of the conservative movement, i firmly believe just as it was in the past when you think back to one of my great assessors with the welfare reform, when you think back to others who led the charge over the years, the conservative movement came from

the states and not the other way around. it was important to remember that the states formed the country and not the other way around. it is the states that will lead us forward. i'm optimistic about the future. what have we learned from the fall elections? we have to be more optimistic. we need a viable alternative to give to the voters. it needs to appeal to the voters. i believe in being realistic about the challenges we face, but optimistic in the solutions. that is incredibly important. who are the people we were drawn to? people who are optimistic on how we would get out of these issues.

they said, things are tough, but i believe in the people of my state, my country. i have a vision and you have a vision and we can move forward. think about the context. we talk about a lot of differences between conservatives and liberals. i believe that liberals fundamentally put their faith in government so much so that they measure success in government by how many people are dependent upon the government. sadly, more often than not by how many people are dependent upon unemployment. one person said to me, what is your measure of success? the people who used to work here, the previous governor measured success by how many

people are agency was able to sign up for unemployment benefits. they thought that was good to put federal money in. what is your definition of success? i said it is absolutely the opposite. i believe i definition of success, our definition of success of the vast majority in this country believe the definition of success at any level is the opposite. it is how many people are not dependent upon the government. [applause] not because we kicked those people to the street. it is the opposite. we understand the true way to control someone a's destiny is to empower them to have a job in the private sector where they can have more freedom and prosperity.

only people self-determination can do that. we should be the movement that says we are about you. we about putting power back into the hands of the hard working taxpayers. the reason why we were elected in june of this past year by more votes than in the november 2010 election was because we say, which do you want? elected officials who put their power and to the hands of a handful of big government interests? or do you want leaders elected to put the power back into the hands of the hard-working taxpayers? that is the choice. the government or the taxpayers? as conservatives, we believe in the taxpayers, the people of our state. we need to optimistically layout that case.

we also need to talk about being relevant. after the november elections, a lot of pundits were saying that maybe the republican party needs to back away from their principals. maybe they need to change things. our principles are not the problem. when i go around and say that i believe 30 of us governors have done a good job in the states are relevant to the dreams of the vast majority of people in our states. it means not just being relevant, that talking about it in a way that is relevant. lots of people i talk to to not talk in terms of the fiscal cliff or the debt ceiling. they do not talk about monthly job reports. they talk about things like how is my kid's school performing? will make it have a job when

they get out of college? can i pay my bills? can i pay the mortgage? you hear all too often that political leaders talk about things in terms that are not really relevant. the outcome might be relevant, but not relevant to the people in our states. we need to be more relevant. when i first ran for governor, i used to tell a story about something i started doing about 25 years ago. when i started working, i would pack a lunch every day. it is a lunch i still most days. chisam which nests cheese sandwich on wheat bread with a little bit of mayo -- cheese sam went on wheat bread with a little bit of mayo. i bring the same lunch.

i get the same thing every day and i'm perfectly happy with that. i pack it in a little brown bag lunch. i it in the car or at the capitol or anywhere else. when i ran for governor, i said we need a little bit of brown bag common sense in our government. as it first, my grandmother raised my mother in a farmhouse where my mother did not have indoor plumbing don't think they bought on credit was a mortgage on their farm. -- berman mother did not have indoor plumbing. they bought it on credit. in government, we should not spend money that we do not have. it is not about that ceilings a deficit or anything else, but the simple concept that your

parents taught you that you do not spend money you do not have. when you talk to people about it, they do it all the time when they balance the check books. somehow it is a foreign concept in government. we talk about limited government. we talk about frugality in government. we should articulate whether this is relevant to where people are here in -- or people are. you can talk to most people across the country. most people would tell you other than public safety and public health, there is not a whole lot that is obvious, yet it creeps into all parts of our life. it asked people whether they

identified themselves as republican or not, most people would say i do not want the government meddling in my life. there are a handful of things that relate to poor public health and public safety issues that we cannot do on our own, but for most things we can do on our own, we prefer that we do it and not the government. finally, something that i think we need to be talking about is because some left people do not get it and even some of our own republican friends, that is that people great jobs and not the government. -- create jobs and not the government. that is one of the misnomers out there. [applause] somehow when candidates run for election -- we do not create jobs in government. i'm proud of the reforms we put

legs to balance our budget. we took a budget deficits and we now have half $1 million surplus. [applause] after 12 years, we're coming up on our third year where property taxes will go down. our overall tax burden is down in this data. -- in the state. that is not done because i created more jobs, but because we created an environment that was more advantageous for small business leaders to make investments that would lead to more jobs. that is the third truth. people create jobs. most people understand that. they get that the best way to create opportunity is to empower people, particularly small business to be in a position to do that.

those are the things that are relevant. the same pundits who said that we need to change our principles talked about certain voting blocs and segments out there -- young voters, women voters, kids coming out of college, ethnic minorities, immigrants. i think the message as long it is in terms of where those voters are at, i think that is one mistake many republicans did. we stayed in a place as we were too comfortable. if you are an immigrant like my family who came from other countries generations ago, our weather were like my brothers in-laws who came to generations ago from mexico, in each case, we can for some of the same reasons.

they wanted to come for a better life. we wanted an education. they wanted to work hard and live the american dream. that is a theme that does not come they were government, but more freedom and opportunity. we are the party that can do that. we need to articulate that message strongly in every part of america. [applause] finally, in addition to the optimistic, realistic view about our issues, the last thing i want to talk about his courage. -- about is courage. but i was talking about what we were doing and why would doing it, i talked about what was leading up to the recall being one of those defining moments of american history. it was not because of me.

the recall election had very little to do with me. it had to do with that simple impression of who is in charge? are we going to allow the big government special interest to drive things in the state and local level? or will we allow the hard- working taxpayers to be in charge? the interesting part about that was also one that would define what happened in other battles. not just at the state level, but all across the country. if we had lost the recall election, we would have set back politics at least a decade, if not a generation. i pointed out that my good friend and neighbor for many years, paul ryan, said on june 5, our state was on the ballot. the those who helped us and made calls or send donations, thank

you. it does that support that made the difference. -- it was that support that made the difference. i like to kid that other governors i see that i'm the only one who has ever been elected twice in the same term. that is kind of fun to joke about that. [laughter] i'm proud to still be the governor of wisconsin not because of the title, although it is the best job in america, i'm proud to be the governor because it sends a compelling message not just to leaders in washington, not just to leaders across america, but any elected official be it eight mayor or another that you can stick your neck out.

voters will reward you for that. we need to send a compelling message that is okay to stand up and lead. if you do, you do without hesitation. ultimately, the voters will respond to that because of voters in this country are creating -- craving leadership. [applause] let me and with this last thought. and you'll hear from senator crews who is a great inspiration to me. the reason i knew that we would ultimately prevail was not because of campaign support or anything else. all the support we got was tremendously important, the grassroots, but only in donations, but we raise $37 million, which sounds like a lot of money, but 70% of that was

from people who give us $50 or less. it was a natural grass roots movement. the reason i knew was something that went back all the way back to september of 2011 -- right after 9/11 had two years ago, we had the honor of going to kill althea for a meeting with other governors. -- to philadelphia for a meeting with other governors. you probably all our history buffs. i wanted to see philadelphia. growing up as a son of a minister, me and my brother and i, in our days, you would consider us poor. we did not know that. pastor's did not get paid a lot. the furthest distance we would go on vacation was about as far as our station wagon could drive for about a day and then a turnaround and come back. we never got out to washington

or philadelphia. in september 2011 when i was at this gathering of governors, i really was excited about being in philadelphia. i got up early to go over to independence hall, to see the outside of it, to see the liberty bell. i was blown away. growing up as somebody who loved history, particularly loved the founders of our country. i often thought of them as bigger than life, as super heroes. i thought about what they did -- i thought i would be blown away, and i came to independence hall in philadelphia, and i looked at this stage, and i was soaking it in, and i looked at antoinette, and if you have been there, you would know that it was where this bad -- where they sat, it was about the size of the stage. the desk out in front, the

chairs -- i thought to myself, wow, these were ordinary people. ordinary people who did something quite extraordinary. when you think about it, some 225 years after the constitution was put together right in that place, you realize that these were ordinary people who did something quite extraordinary. as we all know who love history, these were people who did not just risk their political careers. in fact, they did not just risk their business ventures. these were people who literally risked their lives for the freedoms we hold dear today. and franklin had it right. he said, we do not hang together. surely we will hang separately. these are people who risked their lives for the freedoms we hold dear. the reason i knew we would -- i knew we would win our recall election, despite the majority in the senate, a presidential

election, the reason i am optimistic about the future of this great republic is because of our history, who we are. what has made america great, what has made as arguably the greatest nation in the history of the world has been that in moments of crisis, be it economic or fiscal, military or spiritual, what has made america amazing is that for out of those moments that there have been men and women of courage that have been willing to stand up and think more about the future of their children and their grandchildren than they thought about their own futures. this yet again is one of those times in american history. it does not take an election to move forward in that regard. it takes a movement and a commitment to the principles of not just our founders of every generation since and those who get to come to believe in the great american ideal, who believes that freedom and prosperity are the focus. if continue to be optimistic and relevant about that, i have no

doubt that this country and each of our states will be better off for generations to come. thank you for the commitment to that. , for being here today. may god bless each and every one of you. [applause] >> i am so happy to introduce ted cruz. it's rather personal for me. he's an old friend and i've been waiting for years for him to run for office and win office and hold office, and the first time ted ran for office, the very first time, he landed in the u.s. senate, imagine that, and not from delaware, not from some other little state, not from a state with a low population, from the second most populous state, texas, a state teeming with veteran, seasoned politicians just burning to move up and here comes ted, no name, no offense, no wealth, no family connections and ted wins a seat in the u.s. senate.

it's just thrilling. as i said, i've known him for a long time. he grew up in houston. his father is a cuban immigrant, rafael, he arrived in this country with just a slide rule in his pocket. the only thing they would let him take out. he was a teen. he had $100 sewn into his underwear by his mother. meon't think he would mind saying he was a peculiar kid in high school the he joined up with a group called free enterprise and read hayek and all those types and he was part of a group called constitutional corrobators, and these guys studied the constitution hard, talked about it to the civic groups, and ted goes to princeton where he is, get this, north american debate

champion. not just u.s. but north american debate champion. goes to harvard law school. clerks for chief justice rehnquist. he had to learn to play tennis in order to have that clerkship because that's what rehnquist wanted. ted serves in the administration for a while, goes home to texas, serves as solicitor general, runs for the u.s. senate. first run for office, wins. he is a, if i may use an old nixon phrase and thatcher phrase, he's one of us, by which i mean he's a reaganite, or reaganaut as dick allen said, he's what i call an all- rounder. i think it's a cricket term. he is a legal eagle of course. a free marketeer. knows a lot about economics. a national security hawk. very knowledgeable about

foreign policy. he is a, wish there were a better term for this, he's a social conservative. that term will have to do. and he's a hell of a guy. ladies and gentlemen, the new senator from texas, r, and capital r, rafael ted cruz. \[applause] >> thank you so much. jay has been a dear friend a long, long time. i told jay please -- you know this past week was a momentous week -- oh, i need a mike?

hello, hello. >> as they said in the 20 70 campaign, help is on the way. \[laughter] so when the mike wasn't working i told all sorts of embarrassing secrets about jay nordlinger and i trust all of you got them in full lurid detail. this past week has been a momentous week. president obama was sworn in to a second term. i guess what made the news is beyonce apparently lip synced throughout the inaugural. not as widely reported was the fact that president obama did as well. who knew that his teleprompter

could play music? we saw this week an ode to liberalism, unabashed, unapologetic, i have to say sitting there it occurred to me somewhere the sea must be rising now. and it is easy for us as conservatives to look at the november election and that exultant, unabashed embrace of the left and to have a moment's despair. let me say this room is critical to preventing that to happen. "national review" has a long, long history of standing athwart history and yelling "halt." we can stop this.

we can turn it around and in fact i am right now incredibly, incredibly optimistic, as they say, it's always darkest before the dawn, that we are on the verge of a rebirth of conservativism. \[applause] so what do we do? how do we make that happen? let me talk at two different levels. short-term and long term. short term let's talk about tactics on the ground. in washington, d.c. we have a president who's feeling his oats. he's reading his press releases and believes he is unstoppable. we have a democratic senate that are feeling their oats. they've read the kool-aid.

let me give three bits of advice. and by the way, read the kool- aid would be just mangling, reading the press releases, drinking the kool-aid -- if they read the kool-aid it doesn't work nearly as well -- \[laughter] let me give three concrete bits of advice to conservatives in washington, and in particular let me address this to our friends in the house of representatives. who i think for the next two years are the last bastion standing between us and oblivion. the first thing i would urge to every republican in the house of representatives is stop reading "the new york times." \[applause] cancel your subscription. the media is going to tell you, i'll sum it up, the next two

years, the democrats are right, abandon conservative principles and abandon hope all ye who enter. their answer, and it will be their prescription on every single fight, hire is what conservatives and republicans need to do, abandon your principles and become democrats. listen, the very same american people that on november 7, 2012 went in and re-elected barack obama also reelected a majority to the house of representatives and they have every bit as much mandate from the american people that the president has. [applause] number two, in the short term what can we do? we can stop bad things. and stopping bad things is significant because they've got a whole lot of bad things that they want to have happen.

the idea is listen to -- the ideas -- listen to that speech on the inaugural day, whether it is coming after our guns, which, oh, boy, they seem excited to do, whether it is exploding spending and debt and taxes even more, whether it is cap and trade, regulating our economy and raising the costs for every american, they are feeling emboldened right now. and if conservatives stand together, we can stop that, and stopping bad things that would harm this country, that would harm americans, is a major victory for the next two years. \[applause] but the third thing we can do in the short term is we can use leverage points to plaque real

progress on the fiscal and economic crisis threatening this country. the fundamental dynamic when you have divided government is that whichever side owns the default is in the stronger position. either party can stop anything. so whoever wins if nothing gets done, wins the negotiation, wins the battle. it's why on fiscal cliff we got such a lousy deal. because if nothing happened, the result was a massive tax increase on er american who pays taxes, and i think president obama was perfectly fine, he was serene to go off that cliff. why? because his substantive agenda, which he doesn't hide from, is to dramatically expand the size and power of government, and to do that, he needs to raise taxes. two major points are coming up.

the continuing resolution and the debt ceiling. both of those are coming up in the next couple of months. those are leverage points that are the mirror image of the fiscal cliff. those are leverage points that if nothing passes the result is not a default on the debt. that's scaremongering from the president. those are temporary partial shutdowns. we've seen that before in 1995 when republicans stood together, and the result was some political pain, to be sure, but it was also year after year of balanced budgets and some of 9 most fiscally responsible policies from congress we have seen in modern times. \[applause] the only hope of getting

anything affirmative done is requesting to come from those leverage points because president obama has indicated, sadly, he has no interest in being bill clinton. he has no interest in tacking to the middle. he has no interest in compromising with anybody, and the only way we're going to restrain the out of control spending and debt that's threatening our future is to use those leverage points to force real solutions. so that's the short term. what about the long term? what about strategically? or as "saturday night live" would put it, what about strategery? this is where the men and women in this room are so utterly critical. why did we lose in 2012? we lost because we didn't win the argument.

margaret thatcher famously said, first you win the argument, then you whin the vote. what do we do long term? we've got to win the argument and i'm going to suggest two words that every republican in this country should have tattooed on their forearm to read on any speech -- growth and opportunity. let's talk about them one at a time. growth. there was a time when republicans were unabashedly the party of growth. we need to return to that. since world war ii our economy's grown an average of 3.3%. under barack obama in the last four years it grew 1.5%. less than half the historic

average. if we don't get growth back, none of these problems get fixed. if we can get back to historic averages of growth, 3%, 4%, 5%, every one of these challenges we're talking about is transformed. the 23 million people who are struggling to find jobs? the only way they get jobs is growth. the train wreck that is our federal balance sheet? the only way it gets fixed is if there's growth. if we see 4% growth, which is very close to the historic average over the last 200 years, 4% growth in a decade will produce 10 million new jobs. 4% growth in a decade will produce $3 trillion in additional tax revenue to pay down deficits and the debt. by the way, that is more than barack obama hopes to get

through his massive tax increases. there's more revenue through growth than there ever could be through tax increases, which is one of the ways, by the way, when i'm debating those on the left and they say they're for revenue, i inevitably agree. i'm for revenue, too. the best way to have revenue, i say, sit down with those in the business sector and i say i'd love to double your taxes. they look at me and think, did i come to the wrong meeting? i say i'd love for next year your profits to double and you would happily write twice as big a tax check. up want to pay down our debt, get the economy roaring, get people back to work, 4% growth for a decade, 3 million people would rise out of poverty and be standing on their own feet. we need to be unapologetically the party of growth. we need to get back to growth

and number two, we need to get back to opportunity. you know, if you could sum up what went wrong last election, i think it comes down to two words. 47%. now, by that i don't mean that ill-fated comment. i think mitt romney is a good man. he worked very, very hard. he is a decent man of character. anyone can have a slip of the tongue. what i mean by 47% is the narrative of the last election. the narrative of the last election was that the 47% who are dependent on government, we don't have to worry about you. that is the entire idea of the

democrats. it buys into the idea that the economic spy fixed, static, that it never changes. and you know what? if they're right about that, then suddenly redistribution makes a whole lot more sense. if the pie is never changing, why should some have dramatically more than others? but the reason they're so incredibly wrong is as conservatives we understand this is a dynamic pie. it's a growing pie. it's where growth connects to opportunity. the reason those 47% are not going to be the same 47% tomorrow. republicans are and should be the party of the 47%. for over a decade i have been fighting for something i call opportunity conservativism.

now, what does that mean? that means that every domestic policy we as conservatives think about, talk about, fight about, should be focused like a laser on opportunity. on easing the means of ascent up the economic ladder. that should be the focus of every single policy. we should view it through the lens of how does this impact those if he bottom of the economic ladder? and listen, our policies work. the other side's don't. and yet painfully, so many republicans don't seem to understand that. let me suggest an experiment to you. the next time you're watching television and you see a republican politician come on tv and the topic of race or class comes up, turn off the volume.

most republicans think we're wrong. if you look at their body language, republican politicians are saying please stop talking about these issues, can we talk about capital gains? i can talk about capital gains. i have to tell you every time that happens i want to put my boot through the television set. i've had to buy a lot of tv sets. our policies work! why is it that for two centuries, millions of people have come from all over the world to the united states? because we are a land that allows unlimited opportunity. it allows people with nothing to work to achieve anything. and the policies of the left, you know, there's a fabulous article that ran in national review, written by my friend

mario loyola, called "a tale of two cities." it talked about detroit and houston. in the 1950's detroit was a bigger city, a more prosperous city. many would have said a better place to live than houston. i can't imagine why, but there are some that would have said that. and over the next 0 years the two cities pursued fundamentally different economic policies. one a free market policy that encouraged free markets and temperature neutral zone and small business and the other that followed a collectivist vision and if you look at trajectories of both cities, it's a perfect lesson of what works and -- policy 0 -- policies work and what don't. i'm happy to go into any school in america and say look, if you want to go with the democrats, they can bring you the success they've had in detroit.

\[applause] every single policy we talk about should be framed from the perspective of opportunity, whether it's something like school choice, which i think is the civil rights issue of the next generation, but you know, school choice, what it's fundamentally about is bringing competition to improve public schools and providing hope and opportunity for kids that are trapped and being denied a fair shot at the american dream. whether it's something like social security, personal accounts, which as much as republicans love to put on our green eyeshades and talk about solvency, far more important is the ability of those at the bottom of the economic ladder to accumulate resources and assets that they can use to pass on to their kids and grandkids to buy a home, to start a business, to get an education.

whether it is taxes and regulation. let me give a perfect example. one of the best slogans that came out of this last campaign was "you built that." and it was in response to barack obama's terrible but revealing comment, "you didn't build that, you didn't build that small business." that was one of the best moments of the last campaign. but i wish we'd taken a different tack on it because that was a slogan that was aimed at the 53%. it was aimed at business owners, at people who had already gotten there. i think our message should have been "you can build that." because what barack obama was saying to everyone struggling to climb the economic ladder is you can't build that. listen, i don't really care who built the corporate titans and

giants of today. one of the biggest lies of politics is the lie that republicans are the party of big business. big business loves big government. big business is very, very happy to get in bed with big government to hire an army of lobbyists and tax attorneys and to entrench their power. we should be the party of small businesses, of entrepreneurs, of the next person starting a business in his garage that's going to topple those giant corporations. \[applause] our policies work, and they're right. you know, in the last four years, hispanic unemployment climbed to over 10%. african-american unemployment climbed to over 14%.

everyone is talking about the demographics of this last election and how it means republicans are doomed, doomed for all eternity. the policies of the obama administration have fundamentally failed the communities that are struggling to climb the economic ladder. and yet how many republicans said that even once? how many republicans were willing to go into communities and say look, if you want to work towards the american dream, let me talk very briefly about the hispanic community. right now there are a lot of political consultants saying the answer on the hispanic community is all about immigration. we just need to run and embrace the policies of the democrats and that will cure the electoral problem. i'll tell you what our polling has shown. hispanic voters in texas, we asked what's your number one

issue? immigration was at 5%. jobs and the economy was at 54%. what our polling showed is the reason hispanics didn't vote for republicans was because of 47%. it was because they said republicans are the party of the rich, those that already have theirs and that ain't me yet. now let me give you something that should be very encouraging. there are 2.3 million hispanic small business owners in this country. that's roughly one in 10 house holds. hispanic community, we are an incredibly entrepreneurial community, but republicans have to learn to carry the message that the avenue for climbing the economic ladder has always been the ability to create a business, to go and work and provide for your family. the message of the left is a

message of dependency. it's a message of control and, dependency is not bad primarily because of the public fisc. it's bad because of the impact it has on those who become trapped in a cycle of dependency. i challenge you to find any grandmother who says she wants her grandkids to be dependent on government going forward. we are an optimistic people. you know, the same polling we did in texas found 77% of hispanics believe their children or grandchildren will have material wealth. we are an optimistic people. it's who we are, and republicans need to get back to our core principles of growth and opportunity because our ideas work and their ideas don't. i want to close with one final

word of encouragement. which is, these are dark days, but we've seen dark days before. a lot of folks in this room who remember the late 1970's. 1978, 1979. those were dismal times. double-digit unemployment. 22% interest rates. gas lines. our hostages languishing in iran for 444 days. those were dark times. if you were a conservative in 1978, 1979, there was not a lot of reason to be optimistic. if you were a conservative in 1978 and 1979 the "new york times" was saying abandon hope, become a liberal. and yet it took jimmy carter to give us ronald reagan. and i remain convinced the most significant long-lasting legacy

of barack obama is going to be a new generation of leaders in the republican party standing up and fighting for principles. \[applause] look at the leaders who have been here this weekend. look at paul ryan. look at scott walker. look at ken cuccinelli. look at tom cotton. a new generation of leaders who understand conservative principles are right, conservative principles work. i like to refer to this generation as the children of reagan. because all of us were kids when reagan was president. and his model of optimistic, positive leadership bringing people together and understanding that our principles work and create opportunity, opportunity for those climbing the ladder is what we're seeing replicating all over this country.

i'm convinced we're going to win the argument. and it's going to be the men and women in this room who are on the front lines winning that fight. god bless you. [applause] [applause] >> my boy can talk. i'm told by our masters.

we have time for about eight minutes of "q&a -- of q + a. if you would like to ask a question, shoot your hand up boldly. >> i will be with you any second. how do people like you overcome leftward media bias and general cultural bias that is leftward? how do we do this generally?

>> the media will always be a lost cause. it was a lost cause 30 years ago when ronald reagan was elected. it is a lost cause today. you talk to the people. he did that. it is a lot easier with the internet, with social media, with facebook, with twitter. with my race in texas it was a 55 million-dollar race. i turned to my wife and she looked at me and said "goodness gracious, i did not realize you're such a rotten guy." we did not have the money to respond. instead we used the internet. they began talking to their friends. we have to do a far better job. >> go right ahead. >> i worked on the romney campaign. and very familiar with the argument that we are to the end of the 70's. we see the signs of it all the

time the special with the word in green energy. it seems obama was able to escape where carter did not get reelected. what gives you hope was essentially carter lost. >> it is a great question. two things -- >> his policy does not work. he is doubling down on them. there is a reason most presidents have a very challenging second term. they tended to overreach. president obama is giving every indication he will push for a radical and liberal agenda. it is that going to work or will it backfire? i believe the results of this election will further the process of new leaders stepping

forward. we will do a better job making the argument. one of the ones you have is fox news, msnbc, cnn. paralleling in universes. do you watch fox is predominantly? [applause] you thought romney was going to win with 70%. if you watch msnbc, god help you. [laughter] a consequence of that, we did not do a good job communicating to those who were not already in the choir. let's take young people. young people voted overwhelmingly for barack obama.

we did not carry the message. if you are a young person coming out of school, why would you be voting for a president and party that has done so much damage to the economy that you cannot find a job? the answer is to live with your parents until you are 26 and can be on their health care. it is not complicated. you are getting stuck with that bill. your parents and grandparents have taken out a credit card in your name and they are maxing it out and going to vegas. we have to make this message and carry it to people who have not heard it yet. >> i have a question that goes to the very far future.

we are facing a future with artificial intelligence saying there will not be a job in the future. we need to think about new economic systems to deal with productivity growth and employment loss. i hope the republican party will lead in this. if not, the future is going to be dismal. >> i appreciate that question. i've just been elected to serve in congress. i deal with artificial intelligence a lot, [applause] there were massive technological changes. they are producing dislocations. what we have seen in the united

states, we have seen a shift from an agrarian to an industrial society to an information age. these are always difficult. if you look at these that his organization, they do lousy on transitions because it changes the rules. if we have a collective government control of our economy a century ago we would have massive subsidies for hers and bedding makers because they were going out of business by this automobile maker. the way we get around it is if we remain an environment or someone can start a business,

where someone can create a new opportunity to commit people to work. that will continue to happen unless we allow -- what government control does, bidding socialism is bad for the rest. that is not true. this is a socialist country. the rich do just fine. you have to be born to aristocracy and you can have a nice school to sculpted gardens. >> you do not see it in the new rich people. we do not seize the social mobility. you do not see bill gates starting a company and building it into one of the most powerful companies in the world. that is that we overcome these transitions. what is most dangerous is the power and control of government calcifies.

it makes it harder for them to start. this is the threatening the future of all of us. >> i am an attorney and a newspaper columnist from wyoming. many people here today attended the march for like yesterday. we are aware that 55 million people are not here today. they're not paying into social security. could you please speak to the policy indications of that as recognized by the republican party? what are the prospects for moving from an income tax to a consumption tax in the future? >> i'm going to give you one

minute and 27 seconds. >> that addresses these both. on life you are right. 55 billion souls have lost their lives to abortion. we do not know how many scientists, doctors, artists, athletes, how many great businessmen who might have started a business to deal with this transformation, have been lost. i salute you for being at the march for life on one of the coldest days of the year. i think we need to remain a party that celebrates every human life as a precious gift from god that should be protected from conception until natural death.

[applause] >> i will give you a grand total of a minute on this final one. would you like to see a world power become eminent or would like to come home and switch republican if we could have that? >> somewhere in between is the truth of it. since world war ii we have been the preeminent voice for freedom, peace on the globe. that we must remain. we must remain unapologetically a voice for freedom and peace. when you think about moments in history, we have two pending nominations.

the greatest diplomat, he just wrote a book on the nobel peace prize, the person who should have won a nobel peace prize more than anyone was ronald reagan. he won the cold war which had people hiding under their desks with fear of nuclear annihilation. he did so by understanding that the collective wisdom in 1970's, that their economy was unstoppable, you now see some democrats say we won the cold

war. you have to laugh and say who is "we?" they say what all of them said of the cold war in 1970's, but it was foolish to even try and stand up. we built up a military to protect our defense. regan had the clarity of vision to overcome this state and to utter the most important words by president in modern times. he said "mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall." i think the united states should always remain an unflinching beacon of freedom. i do not think the answer is for us to be the world's policeman and solve every problem across the globe.

my view of the military is exactly that of reagan's. it should be driven by the national security interest of the united states. we should go in with overwhelming force. when we are done, get the heck out. >> thank you for coming here. senator ted cruz of texas. [applause] >> thank you. god bless you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]

>> hello, everyone. incredibly loud. i apologize to your eardrums. i'm with national review. this is our panel on what is wrong with the right. we will take the next 72 hours -- i hope you'll have provisions for the next couple of days. i am here with the editor of commentary magazine. joe scarborough of msnbc, ross -- that, a columnist from "the new york times." we will get right into it. john, hot you wrote a book a few years back called open-" -- "bush country to go in which he celebrated the achievement of our 43rd president. he is a guy that thought deeply about immigration reform, poverty, and trying to craft a middle class agenda.

now a lot are thinking the same thing. do you think republicans were too quick to abandon george w. bush? >> sorry. i was tweeting. [laughter] yes and no. politically, republicans distanced themselves from george w. bush because it was the thing to do. numbers do not lie. he became very unpopular. parties do not have to embrace figures and politicians to become unpopular. my view is that a lot of distress over bush's domestic agenda from which they fled in 2005. it had been an ancillary result

of failure to defend iraq and have a favorable recognition. >> what might have been a successful policy agenda? >> i think the entire country stopped listening to president bush which would be good for the country when it lost faith that he was managing the war effectively. he found it more difficult to get hearings on some of the issues. a lot of people on the right to it came at bush on a lot of these domestic issues. they were feeling extremely distressed about what was going on in the war and did not want to turn on the war. we have troops in the field. this seems like a noble endeavor.

they were angry at him for throwing them on the defensive for the prosecution of the war. as a result of the republican party getting thrown on its heels of immigration, in 2006 i published a book on hillary clinton. >> we're right to come back. >> let me finish this point. the morning that i, i had 150 radio interviews. the book was being sent off. i did eight interviews the first day. every single one of the interviews i came on the conservative radio station and i said i am here to talk about my book. the conservative radio host would say "i do not want to talk about that. i want to talk about immigration. what's the matter with the

president? what is going on?" this is supposed to be a friendly audience. they hated hillary. no conservative wanted to talk about the democrats. they wanted to distance themselves from bush. >> you are the person i turn to when i am looking for optimism about the republican future. when i think "what on earth are they doing," he makes sense of it in a way i appreciate. one of the republican governors that a lot of us are looking to is gov. bobby jindal. he makes a terrific outline of how it should be the party

growth rather than austerity. what other policies should be backed by the party? he turned to term limits and the budget amendment. does this reflect a broader exhaustion? we have young republicans who are talking about a new idea. we keep hearing these retreads. what are your thoughts on that? should we fall into despair? >> let me make you feel better again. it is not quite right that we're only during retread. for the last few years for all of their difficulties, there has been a time of real creativity on the right. the republican party really has

moved pretty dramatically in the right direction and is learning about how to speak of where it has moved to which it has always been a problem for conservatives. in terms of talking about growth and prosperity which is what conservative should be talking about, republicans have to be the party of growth and middle-class prosperity. even the louisiana governor is better than he says. it may be that when he talks about it he ends his sentences by talking about the balanced budget amendment which was helpful in 1993. if you look at what he's doing in louisiana, he is thinking when the time that globalization is bringing pressure on working class voters, at a time when the economy is going through a very

complicated difficult moment or is not there had to get back to growth, he is thinking creatively about how to use the strength to build on its weaknesses. at the national level that is what conservatives have stated. the policy agenda that has to come is not fully worked out by any means. the questions are being asked, the direction of thinking has been helpful. it is different from what they were saying six months or a year ago. the focus is turning to the right place. that is not mean we have the right solution or it will persuade the public. >> i want to bring up something that my friend john mentioned a few minutes ago. part of what i heard was some of the difficulties we

encountered during the invasion of iraq and the occupation or things that damage the republican brand in a deeper way. you have a lot to say. you have a thing or two to say about a number of other issues. is it your view is that republicans need to get right on foreign policy and that is a core issue that is affecting everything else? are you seeing it as a garnish on the salad? not essential. >> as a party, we need to have john and bill on that wing of the party. we also need those who acted and saw the world like we did in congress or we believed in a

restrained foreign policy. that is part of the balance. you go back and look at what william buckley said about iraq. he said it was not a conservative venture. there's nothing conservative about believing that you're going to be able to change the way people live and think in other countries that do not have a democratic background. i think the bigger problem really has to duet the domestic side of things. as long as republicans have a coherent foreign policy, i think americans will go along with it. the bigger problem from the bush era came that he was a big government republican. we had $155 billion surplus when he came in. when you that we had a $1

trillion deficit. our national debt doubled. we had a seven million-dollar drug benefit plan. george w. bush did not veto a single appropriations bill. when you say this and some of going down the list, some republicans will get defensive. i like bush. i campaigned for him twice. i love john roberts except for one decision. george w. bush is some great things. i will tell you what. he completely muddied the brand when it came to what was our core issue, that we are a party of small government. if you give the american people a choice between voting for a big government republican or a big government democrat they will vote for the big government democratic every

single time. what george w. bush did over eight years is destroying our brands. he is a conservative guy. george w. bush is no conservative. >> you really know how to work the crowd. i am impressed. >> they believe we should be the party of small government. >> i believe that rothko offered an article in the late bush years saying the main public bush's but he was a conservative. joseph the only conservative that believes that republicans should see the party is small government. you have a different take. the you enhanced the believe that there ought to be a new consensus. i want you to talk a little bit about that and the fact that in

the 2012 election you have said that it is the first election in modern america in which social conservatism may have been a liability for the gop rather than a strength.

.

and i will know the that concerns me the most is that we have -- one of the things that concerns me the most is that we have the force. we talk about disaster assistance and policy and help at the 30,000 feet level. how does that translate to being down here on the ground? it is almost like that ikea bookcase that looked great in a store and easy to put together. when you open up the directions and have no idea what those directions are saying. that is what we are seeing on the ground. how do we translate everything -- how did we get the information out to people? how do we we translate the legalese and everything else

into answering basic westerns? -- questions? i have to get my business up and running. i am a municipality that just rocked millions of dollars -- lost millions of dollars. entire townships -- we are two or three yours down from a township that just does not exist anymore. their police are using their own vehicles to patrol the streets. we have loaned out our fire equipment to these towns. how do we, how do these funds, how do these resources under 19th and 20th-century policies,, procedures, and experience, meet the needs of the 21st

century superstorm and disaster? that is exactly what we are facing on the ground. that is what the questions are that we have. how quickly can again to the people? 80 some days later. we are still waiting. a lot of these questions we can answer. they have been answered. housing and business and rebuilding infrastructure and electrical grids -- we have already done that. we did it in baghdad. we did it in africa. we are doing it in afghanistan. we marshal plan europe and japan. we know how to do these things. we have done it. we continue to do it elsewhere. if we can do them elsewhere, we can do them at the jersey shore , in long island, and connecticut.

we can do this on the eastern seaboard, the gulf coast, the mississippi delta region, and the earthquake region. we are not and do not need to read about the wheel, either. all of these things have been done and we can continue to do it. on the jersey shore, and i know it is a much bigger area, being a mayor from the jersey shore, just coming from there this morning and talking to people on the ground, these are our needs. now we have to figure out how we match them to the policy, funding, and resources that are coming. i have had this experience several times, one of those christmas tree lights out in the yard and get them all throughout the bushes and down to the last strand, and you end up with two of the same, because

you were not paying attention and they will not plug into each other. we want to make sure these resources and this funding and this will plugs into the needs of the people who need it. we are frustrated, we are tired , we are waiting, we want to read old. we understand, we certainly do, practically no one who think we will just rebuild exactly what we did. we understand that we have to use this opportunity to rebuild a 21st century jersey shore or communities along long island and connecticut to withstand the next superstorm. i believe the governor of new york said, it seems like the 100 year storm is now every other

year. this is a region of the united states -- sandy was a 900,000 mile wide storm. i had family commie from cleveland, they were feeling the winds of it as it was hitting. an area of the country that is easily home to one third of the entire population of the unite states. from washington d.c. all the way up to boston, massachusetts. think about that. when we talk about infrastructure and the power grid, local municipalities and services, transportation systems, coming down on amtrak this morning was probably the first week or two that we started seeing regular service. uninterrupted service on the new jersey transit and rail lines. because of the complete damage that was done. we have to look at those areas as well.

this is a very passionate, i am sure you couldn't tell, to me. it is very passionate to us on the ground in new jersey. we certainly want to be partners. but we just want to get going. we are just waiting for someone over there to say, go. and here are some resources to help you go. that is where we stand on the jersey shore. that is where we stand in our sandy -- affected areas. i am really thankful to be here today. what i have heard so far this morning, being a part of this has really helped me to be able to go back and learn a little bit more about the other people involved, our volunteers on the ground in connecticut. what we are seeing from the air

over the affected area. it has been very helpful to me to be here. i thank you for that. with that, i will take any questions. [applause] >> if you have a question for the mayor, please identify your self by name and affiliation. >> my question is, did you find any financial instruments that would help those businesses to recover, rebuild, and maybe reinvent after the storm? did you discover any of those that exist that they could utilize? >> step one -- i will tell you what, being mayor is a ever a boring job. -- never a boring job. at the end of the day, i always take a deep before checking my e-mail. i was inundated from the business community saying, you

told me to come to the seminar, to talk about assistant and they wanted to offer me a loan. we are talking about businesses that -- the mom and pops. you know, being part of a business organization. businesses, this is affecting them on every single level economically. we have some businesses that took loans and are good to go. they are off and running, reopening. they are working to get their business back. we have some other businesses that are really struggling. we have one business that went out to the community and put out, can you help me open? = $100, $20, $50, and everything in between. they raised several thousand dollars. we need to look at some direct assistance to businesses. these are -- i know, and i am

very familiar with the debate about throwing money at a problem, or how do we protect against abuse? and if you offer loans and grants, guess what line everyone will get into. we need to look at each business individually and be able to package them according to their need. much like we do in financial aid for college. we look at your situation and package your need according to your ability. we also need to look at supporting or allowing states and counties to use funding for marketing destination organizations, tourism councils, so we can start to spread the word that our business community is open. that is an investment.

that is not just throwing money at commercials. that is an investment that we are helping the mom and pops. the main street business communities in this country. they are the backbone of this country. the macy's are going to be all right. we had a business owner who had a flagship store, she was doing very well. he decided he would take a chance and open a satellite store in asbury park, which is doing very well. the flagship store was destroyed. it does not exist anymore. they cannot find the foundation to the building. now, here he is in another store that is closed. how do we help someone like that? he sunk everything he's got. look purely at the credit score and -- you are going to say no. that is another business and 15 employees out of business. we have to look at, that goes back to my comments about, we have 19th and 20th century

experience and eyes. the weather has showed us 21st century teeth. we really have to respond to this in ways that have to be creative and have to get to the heart of the matter of helping people. >> any other questions? asthank you very much. [applause] >> i think you'll all agree those were wonderful remarks. if i may just make a personal editorial, we, specially those of us that live here, we continue to convince ourselves that the beltway is the confines of where all decision- making and all the perspective

minutes from. the reality is that the truth is that it is the rest of america that is integrally involved in these cut of responses. i just consider us very fortunate to have people like mayor johnson driving the solution to these kind of problems. i would like to make one comment on your remarks on the electrical grid. again, to get back to these seem i have -- theme i have been trying to coax you toward, as you are all aware, with our aging electrical grid and much of our critical infrastructure, it does not take a rocket scientist to recognize that it is owned by the private sector. it is critical at all levels of government to have the power that travels through that great. so, again, this is an

interweaving of relationships between public and private sector. if you want to make it even more complicated, most of you know, i base my comment without specific facts, but knowledge, that a large percentage of the power that traveled through that agent and damaged grid was probably provided by canada. especially in that segment of the country. these are very complex issues that require the perspective of federal and international business and government. with that, unless there is objection from our next panel, i will use the prerogative of the chair and ask -- move things around and asked mr. mark roy to be our next inventor. then we can close with the

multiperson panel and expand that to other speakers if required. unfortunately, we have just been informed that the congressman will not be able to join us today because of a death in his family. what i would like to do is go with mr. mark roy who i will introduce in a second, then conclude with the panel that we have and wrap things up. mr. roy will talk about lessons learned from hurricane katrina. he is the gulf coast director of international relief and development, former fema coordinator for gulf coast recovery. the united states leadership forum believes we should learn from past programs, so we are pleased to bring you this portion of our program, lessons learned from hurricane katrina. mark roy was chief of staff for fema's louisiana operations following katrina and rita.

. 2007-20 he is founding faculty member of the disaster resilience leadership academy in new orleans. he maintains appointments as an adjunct assessor and -- professor with the school of health and tropical medicine. currently gulf coast rector for international relief and development. a nongovernmental organization which provides economic development and relief assistance to areas affected by disasters and other destructive actions. esther mark roy. -- mr. mark roy. [applause] >> thank you.

i went to pick up on a comment that the admiral made initially about response. i think it is fairly well- established that that we are much better at response can the longer-term recovery. response does not have an absolute beginning and end in federal systems. other countries approach it differently. there is overlap. there will still be. in terms of infrastructure, immediate repairs, they are ongoing. debris movable continue for months. if one is prudent and a concerned government a leader or agency official or even in private enterprise, you have to take notice that recovery begins the day that response begins. you have to take a longer view and do it you can to make things safer, stronger, and better for the future. some things we have done for

response carry over into recovery, like pre-positioning of assets, fuel bladders along evacuation routes in new orleans. pre-positioning of -- pre- engagement of contract. it generally involves large companies. there are changes that have been made to the national response plan, which is now the national response framework. it went from 220 pages to about 95 in an effort to make it more understandable to the that have to use it. it establishes a common language. it brings in the incident command system for response. these things have been done. they have been done relatively well. what about recovery? what about recovery financing? it's sort of reminds me, many years ago my first criminal

case as a young practicing lawyer was at a federal court in the southern district of mississippi. the federal judge called the case. i appeared with my client and his father, who was most concerned about his son at that point. the federal judge peered over his glasses and scowled at me and looked at my client and his father and his father was clutching a bible. he said, step forward. he said, sir, you are a preacher, what you preach? your honor, i reached the prophecy. >he said, you should have seen this coming. it is the same thing. we started disaster management of a collective group of states in a national sense in the 1920's. in the 1890's we have the corps of engineers in trying to

control the mississippi river with marginal success. ramped up by congressional ctions in the late 1800's. that was the preface to what we do today. you see common ground here for almost the last 100 years. in each case, there is a recognition that all disasters are local. there is a fema mantra from day one. if you are a fema employee, you understand that all disasters are local. the people hit first suffer the longest and tend to be the last to truly recover. that is where the impact film lines. enough -- impact zone lies. these things cross state lines. they cross county and parish lines. they are national.

these are the sort of things that demand national attention, action, and legislation. with a realization that the money, funds, and help need to filter down to those who need it most and also who know most how to spend it. in each disaster we have had since the 1920's, there has been an issue of who is in charge. the local mayor, the state governor, i need federal funds. the feds come in and tell you we are establishing a partnership. but who really has the big stick? it is the guy with the money. a good friend of mine in louisiana was the adjunct general during katrina. he periodically re-advises my law school and public health classes.

you have got the feds and the money, you have the state and locals who want it what you have to do to get it? one of the issues that have surfaced continually is that process is unclear. as a result, all the way through the disaster, we are approaching the a pier following katrina, and for the most part, these issues have been resolved now in louisiana. they were not resolved the first or second or third year. there were continual issues about how to get the money. what money is there? we have a bill being proposed as we speak. i submit to you that it is not enough. katrina has run about $155 billion.

additional funds are yet unspent but on the books. it resulted from about more than 40 pieces of spending legislation. the one you are looking out across the street today will not be a last -- the last. it is a good effort. valuing a catastrophic disaster is impossible. a lot of people pointed to new york and new jersey won the governors were asking for $30 million and $30 billion. fair enough. all in number out of a hat. we know it will be a multibillion-dollar process. you have to start somewhere. estimates on pulmonary damage assessments. they are preliminary. they evolve through time. after katrina, initiating these damage assessment ahead of time, against -- ahead of the landfall

of hurricane. there was a bit of movement to get ahead of the disaster in that sense. the revaluation is ongoing and will continue to be. during this process of trying to get the money, it is a little bit like abbott and castillo. who is on first and what is on second. try and find a money. much of it, if you have not felt with the federal government and fema, stems from the federal emergency management agency's public assistance program. it runs of three main categories of aid. individual assistance, which corresponds to preparedness and response. public assistance, just what it says. infrastructure repairs. mitigation funding, that is a

rant program -- grant program. it is something that can be put in place without a cost share. unlike public assistance. i want to address public assistance a little more in detail. applicant assistance program is generally a 25% cost share to the applicant. a lot of that has been waived in katrina. the same thing happening in sandy. there will be more authority given to the president and fema. wasier, senator landrieu's a key proponent. that started in new orleans. as you are well aware, new orleans did not have the best track record for non-corrupt and spending of public assets. they went to get a loan, and wall street said, thanks, we appreciate this but you do not have good credit.

like the mayor said about tenants looking for a house. we know you have assets, but we are not prepared to lend them. new orleans went back to the drawing board, and with great effort by senator landrieu, it was determined that the best way forward was to waive the cost share in many instances to get these funds flowing. what was happening then, what is happening as of today, money does not go directly to the city. from fema. you can get on a list, you can propose your federal objects -- project. but the designated applicant is the state. so the state of louisiana, following katrina, there was an emphasis on pre-accountability. to try and certify that the funds were spent wisely and get

around some historical bias to the contrary. so the money stayed in the state coffers. billions of dollars that did not get to the respective applicants. applicants of public assistance are cities, nonprofits. it can be indian tribes. a number of different ways to do that. essentially, the money was hanging at the state level. there is a movement now to get direct funding to cities and states as major applicants. secretary donovan is looking at .hat, as i am aware rea one of the lessons from katrina is the need for somebody to take the point for the federal government. it has been argued that fema is or is not the right group to

spearhead that. i think it is important to recognize that during katrina there were about 200 80 full- time employees. it has virtually doubled in size at this point. it still makes it a very small federal agency. international relief and development, the agency for which i am doing work at present, operates in 41 countries. we have more employees have not. -- than that. most federal agencies are larger than that. it is staffed during disasters with temporary, on-call employees and short-term appointments. they also have the ability to direct emissions of coast guard and a number of other federal agencies and bring them into the fold as numbers of the incident command system. all of that tend to work reasonably well now. none of these agencies, short of

the corps of engineers, which is used to looking at long-term building projects, none of them are geared for long-term recovery. fema's role in housing is short- term. it has been pretty well proving that large housing development are not their forte. get people into their temporary shelters and out as quickly as possible. that has been our national model for 100 years. you need to help people, but you need to get the help where it will do the most good and lead to a lasting solution. to that end, i think it is a good point that the president has chosen to produce secretary donovan as the lead person for the housing effort. good was noticeably absent following katrina. there was some connectivity on behalf of hud locally.

that left a vacuum. fema did its best to step forward and fill that gap. that is not its role. that is not where its primary mission is. for the bulk of its assets. one of the lessons learned is that housing is probably best left to agencies that are used to dealing with it. again, to the locals. i want to keep coming back to the concept that all disasters are local. local people, local governments know what they need. they need the resources to be able to do it. how do you get that? again, you are looking at a public assistance program that goes to the state at this moment. you have to have and build if you do not already have, the best relationships you can with your state officials, which is not always easy, depending on which party you are, respectively. but also in congress. i think, this will probably be

the key lesson and opportunity following cindy. -- sandy. congress needs to be engaged. and to move past their supplemental girls and -- and bills add on appropriations. the overall scheme and how we develop and recover after a disaster -- private enterprise, ngos and local and state officials. some of the suggestions have been made because we had parish meetings regularly. that included state our case -- state officers and mayors officers after katrina. there were some -- they were much more boisterous than this meeting today.

there were people inviting other people to take it out in the hallway. one or two times matters were settled by way, and it worked. it took a while to get past that way. now, we kind of know the issues. the issues mentioned today were those that my masters and doctoral students deal with and -- because there is no resolution nationally yet. this is an opportunity to move forward and help resolve some of those. if you are a city or state looking for funding, a couple different venues. i want to get back to the use of large companies. we do use large, pre-engaged contracts for disaster response. it kind of makes sense. the halliburton's of the world that have the logistical capability and assets to mobilize quickly. one of the key donors and providers in a private sense

that has done an exemplary job has been walmart. it takes big companies and organizations in the beginning. that being said, part of the recovery house us is to bring on board locals. during katrina, it was attempted and successful to some degree, to augment fema's workforce by local employees. encourage local contractors, because if people are not to work, you are not going to recover. if you do not have the opportunities local, why come back? you leave a vacuum to be filled by somebody else or not filled at all. i would encourage, as private enterprise leaders and governmental authorities, to look strongly at your ability

to impress congressional representatives and state officials to bring in all parties to this process. what has traditionally happened in public assistance programs is that one or two companies, the state hires their own, they have the men in new jersey, -- they haven't done that in new jersey, it is a national company and there are a couple of others, they run parallel schemes where you have federal government with the money over here, and it's incident command system. and it is duplicated over here. the state tired another company. -- higher -- hired another company. it makes better sense to get the money to the states, and only congress can and it that you secondly, if you are looking at hiring one of the large national decorations, think again.

-- corporations, think again. representing the state as a lawyer, you do not want to be in the position of having conflicts of interest. representing the state, the state tax one view and a county or city has another, maybe they need to have their own company or representative to deal with fema. a lot of the battle following is not so much that the money is not available, it is getting it down to ground level where it longs. -- the longs -- belongs. there is than a lot of money spent in these parallel systems to hire large companies to fight with fema. by way of counsel, i would suggest that a method to look at is to have your own representative. it can be a mayor. he can be a city council member.

it can be a private company or consultant. somebody needs to be heard on your desire for federal funding. designate somebody as a point player to look for the fema money. it is there. it is hidden and buried in the public assistance rolls, even though there is a 120 page document that tells you everything it can do, are not all that clear. i have a lot of examples as to why that is the case. i see my time is about up. i want to thank you for the opportunity today. i will be around later for questions if that is helpful. thank you crea. [applause]>> he will be available for questions in our last panel. what i would like to do now is sunday where we are going to go, and then invite our four speakers up. i will ask them to unceremoniously grabbed a chair and line them up here so they

can be seated. then we will get a discussion after some brief remarks. the united states leadership forum believes that the majority of superstorm sandy reconstruction contracts should be awarded to companies and organizations in the areas impacted by the storm. today we are pleased to highlight two new york and two new jersey companies, all speaking on strategies for superstorm sandy recovery and reconstruction. i would like to invite mr. bruce altman -- bruce salkin, daniel fotiste jr. and and

boliakis. click in the discussion, the ability to reengage lessons any of our previous speakers as well. thank you. cripe>> hi, my name is fotis boliakis, i am the ceo of future home technology. consider us part of the solution. we are a manufacturer of modular structures. what we do is we, on and off site basis, produce housing or

any other structure on and off- site and deliver it so that the time spent and the technology is produced somewhere that is not afflicted by any of the conditions that are present on jersey beach, long beach, long island, or anywhere else. we produce something that is immediately needed for tito reasons. for the reconstruction and for the long-term recovery. i see that i am the representative of my industry here, which is the modular of modular construction. it is a methodology in the construction business. you usually see things built on- site. in this case, the factor here is timing. i will have an opportunity to come back later, other than the original remarks, to tell you how the industry has evolved. it has been around for 30 years.

future home technology is a new york-based business. around for 23 years. we have produced anything from single homes to multi family. the examples that have been damaged of housing and structures in long island, staten island, queens, all of these are replaceable. the only thing we have to ask ourselves, we affectionately termed things that we have no control of as she were her. ships on the high seas, we call our ships female. mother nature is female. we have no control. we try to rebuild something now that continuously changes. we have -- we are fighting to

win, so now we are going to raise the houses higher. we need the new specifications for the foundations. the floodplains have changed. now we need to go higher. wind has an impact on the structure. we have to change. we do not know exactly what these current specifications are. we are waiting to hear. then we can adhere to the new codes in new jersey, state code, federal codes, there is a lot of misconception and not certainty as to where we are going in the near future root i see that as a delay coming into having the reconstruction long- term. i will come back later with any of your questions and for the remarks. >> my name is dan bar;elette. i live in central new jersey.

very close to rutgers new jersey. i got to see superstorm sandy hit. as a flooding, devastation. it was completely unheard of on the east coast. we have never seen anything like this. but my organization does, we procurement solutions. we look at the side of the house, a determination if you have a single source distraction or is in the sourcefire, we want to make sure that you have mitigation strategies. -- strategies in place of the supply chain is not interrupted whatsoever. with some things that did occur, we are working with companies that were directly affected areas they cannot get their products to be manufactured, because they need to go right into the assembly line. they cannot get that. what did they actually do? we come in and let at some of the procurement strategies and execute some of the contract.

what does that mean? we look at some of the other suppliers that they may have in case and make a determination. is there a fix? could we do business with this other organization? maybe we can be a backup supplier. we could pay that retainer fee. we could get those products and make sure we can continue with our business. also, we look at some of the procurement outsourcing. we look at the company's long- term profitability. an average cost savings -- we work with companies. we also work with procurement audits with the federal contracting side of the house. we work with organizations to make sure everybody is in compliance. they can also get paid if they submit a bill. if they have a new regulations, we oversee some of that stuff as well. we do business in the united states, internationally as well.

i will turn it over. >> thank you. my name is bruce salkin, i am the president of a company focused on energy efficient lighting products, all led. i am sure everyone is familiar with that now. we are a supplier to suppliers in the rebuilding effort. i want to thank bill, wherever he is, for the opportunity to be a sponsor for this event. it is a great opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas. i will keep my comments very short. what really drove me to want to be here with listening -- i am a resident of new york city. i do not live on the shore. i live right in lower manhattan. i was affected in that my ninth floor apartment had no lights or elevator or watcher for a wild. -- water for a while.

my friends live in the town next to mayor johnson's and have their share of misery. it was a major problem in the northeast. what drove me to come here was this. i listen to the governor of new jersey and new york right after the storm. they both had a similar message. that was, we have to rebuild, and we need to rebuild better. part and parcel to that is an opportunity to rebuild and use every opportunity to use modern technologies and improve what we have and wherever rebuilding takes place, typically lighting is going to be part and parcel to that great everybody has lights.

all those lights draw off the grid. the field that my business is in allows that rebuilding to take place with a smaller drop of power, more efficient use of power, and the lights are very environmentally friendly and remove mercury from the environment. if there is a disaster, we will not have lights floating around. they do not have that anymore. that is my presentation. >> thanks. i am the ceo of the intersect funds. it is a nonprofit community development financial institution, located in new jersey. the intersect funds is one of the largest micro-lenders in the country. we are in the business of micro- finance. we provide small loans to businesses that are able to

access will elsewhere. -- are not able to access capital elsewhere. we serve the micro-business. you've heard of the small business, our turn is the micro- business. typically took less than $35,000 to start the business. these micro-businesses represent about 90% of the 27 million small businesses around the country. many in new jersey alone. we work and beauty salons and street vendors and handymen. businesses that may not have storefront location, but might be home-based or part-time, mobile. these are important of -- important sources of livelihood. as soon as we were back up and running, in about five days after sandy hit and we could go back to our offices in newark

and new brunswick. we decided we were going to lunch a disaster relief loan program. we made this decision before we even had a dime of funding. they felt like, given the situation, we needed to use our resources as much as we could to help out in this effort. we created an loan products that would offer loans of up to $15,000 to small businesses that have sustained physical or economic damage. physical damage, flooding, or economic damage, due to being closed or if they could show that they had at least 50% of their customers or contracts in an area that was affected. we created a product with reduced interest rates.

a five percent flat interest rate. the average loan you made is about $3500. that over 18 months, that is only about $90 in interest. we also offer a fast turnaround. three days from application to the money in your bank account for these loans. there really quick to tell you if you qualify or not. they are targeting at businesses that would not qualify with the s e a -- sba. the feedback we have heard about them has not been positive. a lot of people are taking a long time to get a decision. upwards of three weeks to a month. and a lot of people get declined. why did they get declined? number one, if you're not reporting all your income on your tax return, you will have a hard time getting an sba loan. 55% of small-business income is not being reported on tax

returns. you can debate whether that is right or wrong, but if your tax return is showing that you are breaking even, you will not qualify for a disaster loan. we go out and send a loan officer that goes to your business in person. they re-create your last statement. we go through a box of receipts and a spiral notebook under the counter that has how much you are making each day. your bank statements -- as long as we can show that your business is viable before the storm hit, you will qualify for one of our disaster loans. why else why -- might they decline? a credit history. and the programs are requiring a minimum of 628 score to qualify. the median score in our portfolio is 595. median. that means half are below. we still manage to have a 90%

repayment rate. how is that? we really look at a person's character and the fundamental to the business. a lot of people got into trouble and incurred debts as they were trying to start a business. many have problems a while ago and do not have a lot of history. we also report to the credit euros so you have a chance to build your score afterwards. we do not have a minimum credit score. we also have loan officers that are culturally competent. they are fluent in spanish. we are looking -- working in an lot of immigrant communities. parts of the shore are big residential communities for people who are immigrants because the rents are really cheap. a lot of people will live there during the rest of the year because it is cheaper to do so. a lot of people in those areas have been affect did. we are supporting this business is.

program to date is lent out over $200,000. we funded more than 50 business es. we have deployed more than 80% of the capital that we have. for this program, we are in the process of raising additional capital. also, raising funds so we can hair our loan -- pair our loans with a business grant as well. portion of receive a the proceeds in the form of a grant. business grants are are a tricky thing. there is discussion earlier. the challenge we have had is that, how we make do with limited resources. if somebody gives us $50,000 for disaster relief, we could make $5,000 or 10,000 grant. or i could use it as a reserve against -- and support 50

businesses. we have done a lot of research on this. a lot of people call us and say, i just need a loan -- an advance against my insurance. it will take 90 days. i want to repair my roof now, obviously. can you just reach me for that 90 days? sure, no problem. that is easy. people want to replace inventory. we also get people to call up and say, i do not want a log. i need a grant. we get further and say, we cannot make any promises. we are doing the research. if we were to make you a grant, we probably would not just regular glen check. -- blank check. we will commit a grant to you for this number dollars. what you have to do is, when you have a bill for repairs, you send us that bill and we will pay it for you. we start talking about that, and the people say that is not what i want. i think it is a tricky thing.

what we have decided is, we are going to pay the grants that the loans so that these businesses that are viable before the storm, they were paying their bills before the storm, they are the ones who will qualify versus the people who will line up at the door if we are offering business grants. to close by mentioning one story of one of the businesses we assisted. we heard a lot of inspirational stories. this is one of them. guy named one -- juan who had a restaurant. it was damaged to the point that he could not return to it for almost a month to even assess what was going on with the state of his equipment. most of it was ruined. you can imagine that there were a lot of things going through his head. as a business owner, his likelihood was gone.

-- livelihood was gone. your employer is not going to give you a certain number of hours. that is your stream of income. all of a sudden gone overnight. juan was really resilient. he found another restaurant craze that had been abandoned in another city a couple of miles away. we gave him a $12,000 loan to purchase additional equipment to get that restaurant space fitted out so he could open a restaurant there. and start generating income. we were able to make this long for him within two weeks. after the storm he was open about a week later. he is doing very well. he makes a certain kind of mexican that is really popular. -- mexican bread that is really

popular. he is already profitable in this new location. that is an example of how people can be resilient. how our products can be helpful. >> thank you. in the modular business, it includes all of the above. as you can imagine, economic recovery happens with housing recovery as well. the economy went on, it started with housing. we approached fema, which is an amorphous big body of federal people, and we gave them examples of what you can do immediately for the people that have been displaced immediately. how to put it in housing. they specifically designed for the location. we traveled to greasy point. we design houses that are

exactly similar to where they are now. you just need to figure out how high they will be up. there is an example of what we are -- what we can produce. the modular industry is all about timing. the funds for their business. the lights and procurement -- it all comes together into module. we have not yet found a way out how all of these can and will be temporarily housed. we provided auntie of examples. we are expecting some answers. we provided the material, and are expecting requests for prices or quotes or an estimate areas this modular business is controlling the destiny. in the locations that you have there, there is no access or power. you have no skilled labor.

they are all being adsorbed making immediate repairs. if you manufacture offsites, using barges or trekking to bring it in, within weeks you can have a family living in a permanent structure. not a trailer. better than what they had before. the industry is geared. there is a thousand home around capacity right now. it has not been tapped. we are waiting for this funding to come through. that will open the spigot for the industry to react. we are part of the solution. thank you. >> an interesting array of active amongst private entities. are there any questions? >> i have so many questions.

i ask another question. when it comes to new technology, integrating new technology in to building these communities -- for example in these buildings that you are into those areas, can you explain to me a little bit when it comes to materials science, are you using new building materials that are more wind resistant, mold resistant, fire resistant, just to adapt to what is coming when it comes to more frequent storms and about western mark >> excellent question. the materials are the leading estimate of the industry. read the point -- breezy point was the example. it was the fire that destroyed so many homes. the design we are doing great

now has to do with the fire coding and that has to do with the local linktone there. we adhere to that. use of electricity, the latest technology. installation, so that the energy spent on heating and cooling. all of those things are configured in. these old homes were 10 or 20 or 30 years. the codes and materials have changed. the technology has improved. we are up to par with that. you are getting today's technology today. or within a week of today. yes, we are very much in the materials science. but you are working with the x is when it comes to making -- experts when it comes to lighting? looking at the grid or off grid solutions and all that? expert software together to really provide -- experts have to work together to really to work together to really provide